1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel having an improved structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plasma display panel (PDP) is a slim and light flat display panel that has a large size, high definition and wide viewing angle. Compared with other flat panel displays, the PDP can be easily manufactured to have a large size and the PDP is thus considered to be next-generation large flat panel display.
The PDP is classified into a DC type, an AC type, and a hybrid type according to the discharge voltage characteristics. Also, the PDP can be classified into an opposite discharge type and a surface discharge type according to the discharge structure.
Turning now to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a triode surface discharge PDP 100. In FIG. 1, the triode surface discharge PDP 100 includes a scan electrode 106, a common electrode 107, a bus electrode 108, a dielectric layer 109 covering these electrodes, and an MgO layer 111 covering the dielectric layer 109 and located on a front substrate 101. However, with the design of FIG. 1, because visible light generated from the phosphor layer 110 must travel through the front substrate 101 to be viewed, much of the visible light generated in the display is never seen. Unfortunately, the scan electrode 106, the common electrode 107, the bus electrode 108, the dielectric layer 109 and the MgO layer 111 formed on the front substrate 101 absorbs much (about 40%) of this generated visible light so that a large fraction of the visible light generated is never viewed. This absorbing by the scan electrode 106, the common electrode 107, the bus electrode 108, the dielectric layer 109 and the MgO layer 111 on the front substrate results in a low luminous efficiency, which is undesirable.
Another problem with the design of FIG. 1 is that when the PDP 100 displays the same image for along time, the phosphor layer 110 is ion sputtered by charged particles of a discharge gas, thus causing a permanent image sticking or image burn in. Therefore, what is needed is a design for a PDP that overcomes these problems of low luminous efficiency and image burn in.